---
title: CLI
description: 'Sequin comes with a CLI you can use to interact with and observe a running Sequin instance. You can use the CLI to set up streams and consumers, and observe messages flowing through your system in real-time.'
---

{/* To install the CLI, see the [installation guide](/installation). */}

## Universal flags

#### `--as-curl`

For every CLI command, you can pass the `--as-curl` flag to have the command printed out as a curl request:

```bash
sequin consumer receive mycon --batch-size=10 --as-curl
```

## Contexts

You can use contexts to easily switch your CLI between environments. For example, if you're debugging production, you can run:

```bash
sequin observe --context=prod
```

And the Sequin CLI will use your settings for prod to connect to your production Sequin instance.

Create a context like so:

```bash
sequin context add [<flags>] [<name>]
```

## Observe

Sequin's `observe` is like [htop](https://github.com/htop-dev/htop) for your Sequin instance. You can watch messages flow into your system, into a consumer's outbox, and get ack'd in real-time.

Boot it with:

```bash
sequin observe
```

